Experientialism: The Book
Forget this page (if you haven't already). Try this one . Experientialism How Mankind’s Animistic and Passionate Spirits Gave Birth to Formal Reason (A Book Proposal) =Introduction= There are reasonable questions that are dangerous to ask, but here, I will ask them. There are passionate statements that are dangerous to make, but here, I will state them. At the dawn of Mankind, we were passionate creatures, like all the others. As we grew more powerful and sophisticated in our passions, we began to remember and anticipate the ill effects of passions too great. In empathy, sympathy, and in our passion for success rather than failure, we found a medicine for the passions that wracked us with intemperance, impatience, rage, grief, and sorrow. We invented Reason. Now, we have come to wonder whether this medicine has not, for a very long time, been used also as a poison. There are those who have been and are wicked because they know no Reason, but there have also been, and are still, those who are wicked because their hearts have gone cold, without Human feeling; they know no real and honest Passion. The histories of Human Reason, Philosophy, Justice, Science, and indeed, many other accomplishments in many other fields of endeavor, are filled with persons armed not just with Reason, but with Passion: Leonardo; Donatello; Raphael; Michelangelo; Nelson Mandela; Galileo; Einstein; George Washington Carver; Martin Luther; Auguste Comte; Mother Teresa; Semmelweis; Martin Luther King, Junior; Gandhi; all forged new and better forms of Reason from their abundance of Passion, Experience, and Learning. =My Purpose (Your mileage may vary.)= All Forms of Special Revelation, Formal Reason and “Objective Truth” are grounded in a Context which contains more than simply the General Revelation available to everyone: it necessarily includes the passionate ends of the “Oracle”, and the logical causes toward those ends. The entire reason for this Argument of Special Revelation, “Truth”, to be made is that the Oracle has not the Effective Means to his Passions and their Ends. He makes the argument, NOT out of an abundance of Wisdom or Judgment, or any Oracular, Omniscient, direct access to “Truth”, but because he must seduce and deceive others to share his Passions, whether they actually serve the Real and Passionate Ends of his Audience or not. He’s simply a parasite! Reason was meant to be a means to resolve problems of Quantities and Qualities of Passion and disputes between individuals with their Passions in conflict, and yet here it is being used to allow the Oracle to destroy and displace the Passions of his Audience, so that he may substitute his own Passions in the guise of Reason and Truth! Once his Audience is thoroughly convinced of his “Infallibility”, through mere Quantity of Public Opinion, so-called “Expertise”, or even more simply, “Argumentum ad Bacuulum”, which is a fancy way of saying Brute Force, violence, incarceration, and Tyranny, he may even force his Oracular Truth upon unwilling and unconvinced members of his Audience. “Objectivity”, Astrology, and Phrenology are all siblings. It’s all Oracular Bullshit. The resemblance between the division of yarrow stalks to consult the I Ching, and the technical divisions created by Dialectic are not incidental, because the same Oracular Methodology underlies both, and of these, I have greater respect for the I Ching. Should we, as Individuals, use Reason and Logic to curb the Passions that would do harm to our greater and more over-arching Passions? Yes. Should we make use of Authority and Jurisprudence to deter and prevent individuals from doing harm to the Passions of others? Yes. Should we allow Social Institutions and Authorities to dictate our Passions, Agency, and Identities to us? No! No one can tell you who you are. That is the only Special Revelation that can be said to be “True”. These Truths are yours, and yours alone. Undisciplined Passion can be destructive, and the proper regulation of Passion can be difficult, '''but the unjust frustration of Passion is inherently... dangerous.' 'Be warned.''' Category:Philosophy Category:Social Rhetoric Category:School of Hard Knocks